On that holy mountain, God repeats the same words that were heard at Jesus’ baptism. “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” No, he is not Moses, he is not Elijah, as the disciples may have thought. Jesus is purely beloved, one loved by God.
This Sunday is also Valentine’s Day. A holiday set aside to celebrate love with chocolate and cards and messages of affection for those with whom we share our lives.
An interesting intersection Valentine’s Day and Transfiguration, where we hear Gods’ voice through the noise of the other voices … we are God’s beloved, this is not only a message for Jesus, is God’s Valentine for us too!
Apprehending this voice of God calling God’s people beloved is pivotal to mission and ministry. Grasping this relationship of belovedness is key to all relationships. Being beloved of God is not just an intellectual exercise. It is God manifest in us! In what we do! In what we say! Being able to experience God’s love for us allows us to more clearly see our own gift and purpose, allows us to shine forth with the beauty and glory that is God.
It can take a whole lifetime to fall into this belovedness.
There is another message in the Gospel. I am reminded that almost always my first response to something new, something I don’t know, something that I don’t understand is fear. How about you? What are we to do with fear? Run from it or confront it?
Lately, when it comes to fear I’m practicing the third way. This means to be more curious, to ask more questions, and mostly to try not to judge myself or others. I hear this encounter on the mountain and see Jesus is still there, he didn’t flee from the disciples' fear. Jesus did ask for a little time before they started telling everyone what they saw that day on the mountain.
Hearts filled with fear are hard to love or to receive love given. That perfect love – the kind Jesus talks about, the kind Jesus lives, perfect love casts out our fear [1 John 4.18].
So it may take a few minutes or a few days before we can talk about and witness to love come close, to hearing you beloved. Let not the fear of a new thing stand in our way of living and loving like Jesus.
